[Straits Times] POLICE hunted on Wednesday for 10 leaders of an anti-government movement after combat troops quashed violent demonstrations in Thailand's capital. An arrest warrant also was out for ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. A day after red-shirted protesters burned buses and seized intersections in clashes with police, soldiers and residents that left two people dead and 123 injured, their leaders called it quits and urged the remaining 2,000 die-hard demonstrators to go home. The swift and unexpected resolution headed off the possibility of a confrontation with heavily armed troops massing around the demonstrators' encampment near the seat of government. Dispirited protesters quietly boarded government buses watched over by soldiers.
But few expected it was the end of a rural-based movement that has shown the ability to mobilize 100,000 protesters and derail a weekend regional summit in its campaign to oust a government dominated by urbanites and to force new elections.
Charnvit Kasetsiri, a prominent Thai historian, said the 'political convulsion' may be over for now, but the underlying tensions between the rural poor and urban elite highlighted during the demonstrations remain. 'The government has underestimated the wrath of rural and marginalised people and that is partly why they have not made enough effort to reach out to heal the rift. Without addressing that, this is not going to be the last riot,' he said.
But at least for the time being, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, an Oxford-educated politician whom many regarded as too soft to handle crises, appears to have gained in stature while many Thais are denouncing Thaksin for inciting his followers to lawlessless by calls for a 'revolution.'
Three of the protest leaders were in police custody, metropolitan police spokesman Suporn Pansua said, and the Bangkok Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for 11 others, including Thaksin, who fled into exile last year before a court convicted him of violating a conflict-of-interest law.